For the love of Lily
by Crumbs85
Summary: On Hiatus: Kaname wants to be a knight in shining armour on a white horse for Yuuki. The white horse in question has different plans... Kaname X Zero.
1. The Reluctant Stead

**For the love of Lily**

**Summary:** Kaname just wants to be a knight in shining armor on a white horse for Yuuki. But the white horse in question has different plans...

**Pairing:** Kaname x Zero, mentioned Kaname x Yuuki, perhaps a smidgen of Zero x Yuuki, (but **really** it's mostly one sided Lily the horse x Zero.)

(I can see people hurriedly clicking the back button already XD)

**Disclaimer: **Woe is me, for I do not own Vampire Knight.

**Author's note:** I haven't written in a long time, and sadly my muse came crawling back at last in the form of this little bit of fluffy cracky silliness. . . This will probably be about three to five chapters. I can't imagine stretching out something so silly much longer...

This takes place after chapter 42, so yes, there are **spoilers**. Don't read if you're not up to date.

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**Chapter One - The reluctant stead  
**

Kaname Kuran wasn't really the sort of person who sat around feeling smug about himself. Not often anyhow. The truth was, nobody would have blamed him if he'd flaunted an enormous insufferable ego around school all day long. There was a lot to be smug about if you were Kaname Kuran.

Kaname Kuran had it all. Immortality, grace, beauty, elegance, intelligence, power, athleticism, devoted worshippers, the opportunity to have almost any partner he desired, money, coolness. . . You name it. Kaname was even good at writing poetry and making creme brulee, not that anybody knew about these little facts. Everything he touched turned to glory, it seemed, and everywhere he went he encountered desire and admiration.

To top it all, Kaname didn't sit about and revel in how wonderful he was. He had honed a quiet and becoming sense of humility. You would never find him bragging; other people bragged for him. Kaname didn't feel the need to impress people, simply because everybody seemed to be impressed by him already (and besides, all those worshipful gazes were so tiring.)

After years of being worshipped, adored and admired he'd never thought he would ever want to vie for anyone's attention, or be really envious of anybody. He'd also never thought he would feel nervousness or apprehension.

And yet, and yet. . .

On this particularly vexing Saturday afternoon he found himself tremulously approaching a pair of baleful eyes, wanting its owner's acceptance, needing their approval. The owner of the eyes was beautiful, graceful and slender, long limbed and lightly muscled, ill-tempered and proud. . . with a glossy white coat and a well-tended mane. Lily the horse was his objective, and she let out a warning horsey snort as Kaname slowly approached her pen in the Cross Academy stables.

Kaname had done his homework on Lily. She was somewhat notorious around school apparently. Her well-heeled hooves had kicked many an unsuspecting boy's backside. It seemed she let nobody tame her, accepted no-one on her back and had no qualms of lashing out at anyone. And how that proud, noble horrible temperament fit her.

It was the first time Kaname had entered the school stables (vampires tended to make horses nervous, and out of respect for the creatures he had let them be all these years) and he had to pause in his slow approach to appreciate her magnificence. 'If Lily was a vampire and not a horse,' Kaname thought, 'she would have been the most beautiful, most tempestuous, most awful pure-blood of them all.'

But she was a horse, and not a vampire, and for some reason Kaname would have far preferred the latter, especially in lieu of her vicious gaze. Even Zero, that brooding anti-social ungrateful prat, he who had mastered the art of the glare, would have looked positively sunny and cheerful next to the demonic visage of Lily the horse.

"It's okay," Kaname addressed the horse as quietly as he could, trying not to let the nervousness he felt show. "I won't hurt you." He was still a few feet away from her, but he slowly stretched out his hand to her.

He could see the whites of her eyes as she neighed angrily, surveying the hand which was still too far away for her to bite or kick at.

'Nothing to be afraid of Kuran,' he reminded himself, feeling slightly annoyed at his own hesitance. 'Even if she does kick or bite you you are a pure-blood vampire, with lots of power and amazing regenerative abilities.'

He felt slightly more confident at that. What a creature she was, that she had made him forget himself and recede into such frail, such human uncertainty.

'And you're doing this for Yuuki,' he added to himself, resolve strengthening even more at the thought. Yuuki was the reason he had disturbed the peace of the stable area. It wasn't that she had asked him to do this either.

He'd accidentally heard her talking to Yori, that friend of hers last night. Even with the new changes in her life Yuuki had still wanted to make time for her human friend, to indulge in simple girl-talk with her. And he'd unfortunately walked past her room at the wrong moment in their conversation.

"Are you and Kaname-sama really together now Yuuki?" had been the first thing he'd heard. He'd tried to walk away, too proud to eavesdrop on a simple female conversation, but unfortunately Yori's next sentence had halted his footsteps. "But you don't look that happy Yuuki."

Was she not happy?

"I'm happy Yori-chan," Yuuki's voice had been quiet when it came, and thoughtful. "Very happy. It's just not the happiness I imagined." He could hear her smiling brightly in spite of the words, and his heart had ached a little at that. Typical Yuuki. Always determined to smile for others' sake. He didn't want her to smile to make others happy, he wanted her to just smile, genuinely. His fist had clenched slightly. Was it that abominable silver-haired grouch she missed? Was that what hindered her happiness?

At this point he was full-out eavesdropping.

"Most of the time the real thing is much better than what you imagined," Yuuki had continued in that brave, cheerful voice. "It's just, you know, I'm a vampire now. And that's kind of different to the fantasies I used to have in my head. Vampires are not bad people, but... Flowers wither when I touch them. Little animals run away when I approach." A hesitation. "I don't mind, I always wanted to be with Kaname, I always wanted to be his princess, and for him to be my prince on a white horse but. . . "

There had been a moment of silence.

"There are no white horses, right?" Yori had prodded gently, perceptively. "Just vampires, right? And dark, vampire things? Not sweet, happy things?"

The silence in answer to that had been enough. Kaname had strode away, quietly, determinedly.

So she really wanted white horses and princes, did she? He had done this, he had turned her back into a vampire, rupturing her away from her sweet but short mortal coil. It had been necessary, but Yuuki had such a sweet nature, she deserved sweetness in return.

Well... who said vampire-princesses couldn't have vampire princes on white horses too?

Thus the reason why Kaname was now approaching the pristine white horse before him. Perhaps he was taking her words too literally, but perhaps a literal demonstration with a white horse was exactly what Yuuki needed.

Lily let out another blaring whinny, tossing her head in agitation. He was almost close enough to touch her now. He could smell her, feel her chaotic thoughts careening around in her head, feel the warmth of her breath and her body. So alive. She wanted to bite him desperately, he could feel it.

"Don't bite me Lily," he murmured soothingly, stepping forward slowly, hand still stretched out. He'd heard that horses responded well to gentle conversation, and indeed Lily was eyeing him as if she understood. "I'm doing this for my only precious girl, you see." Were her eyes softening? He stepped forward again. "I know you don't seem to like people, and I'm sure you definitely don't like vampires, but surely a creature as noble as you would understand a plight of such a noble thing as love. . . argh!!"

Her teeth clamped down on his hand midspeech. _Chomp._

_Chomp._

She had bitten him.

After the initial startled yell he'd let out Kaname immediately reverted to coolness. Years of practice had given him the ability to be calm even when in pain, and he impassively watched his hand clamped between the horse's teeth, his own inviting blood streaming down his arm in red rivulets. The horse's eyes seemed to be glowing with evil and satisfied malevolence. He watched the scene with detachment for a moment, and then snatched his hand away calmly.

He glanced at the hand only for a moment. The horse had bitten her hardest, it seemed, almost to the bone. Even with his healing abilities there would be a scar for a while. He coolly dropped the hand to his side after the cursory inspection, ignoring the excruciating pain easily. Pain was only temporary, no need for it to distract him. He set his eyes on Lily, who seemed to be wearing a horse's version of a smirk. Her intelligent eyes were positively triumphant.

"Biting the hand that could have fed you. Tsk, tsk," Kaname murmured. "You're going to make this difficult for me, aren't you Lily?"

Her head seemed to drop down and then back up. Was that a nod of agreement? What an awfully magnificent creature.

Kaname kept his gaze on Lily's black eyes. "You've chosen the wrong person to bite," he said evenly. "I'm not giving up. I'm doing this to make the only precious person in my life happy, and even if you and I become embroiled in a battle of wits and teeth for eternity I'll do this. I will emerge victorious."

Lily snorted, an ungraceful unladylike 'harumph.'

Kaname nodded at her, somewhat respectfully. "But I'll let you gather your wits whilst I go and take care of my hand. I'm not an unreasonable opponent to horses. You may have won this round Lily but I'll be back soon."

He turned to walk out of the stables in a dignified manner, ignoring the horsey snickers that followed him outside.

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**A/N **- I don't know if anyone even remembers the small scenes with Lily the horse, but she's a pivotal character in this fic. (I loved the scenes with Lily and Zero XD) Zero was supposed to show up sooner, but oh well, he'll be in the next chapter. . . So will Lily. And yes, this is definitely Kaname X Zero, don't be fooled P

As you can see, Yuuki and Kaname are together and Yuuki is a vampire, as they seem to be at the end of manga chapter 42. . . but I'm loftily ignoring the rest of the plot and pretending everything else is fine.


	2. Making Hay

**For the Love of Lily**

**Summary:** Kaname just wants to be a knight in shining armor on a white horse for Yuuki. The white horse in question has different plans...

**Pairing:** Kaname x Zero, mentioned Kaname x Yuuki, perhaps a smidgen of Zero x Yuuki, (but really it's mostly one sided Lily the horse x Zero. (So many closet fans of this pairing, it seems... XD))

**Disclaimer:** Vampire Knight is far too lovely a thing for my own mind to have conceived.

This takes place after chapter 42, so this is a **spoiler **warning. Don't read if you're not up to date.

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**Chapter Two - Making hay**

He'd bought her apples. He'd bought her oats. He'd bought her carrots. He'd showered her with sugar lumps and had then procured a salt block for her to lick. All his feeding treats had been shunned; stomped on; kicked at; spat on.

Kaname was leaning against a tree outside the stables, rubbing at his temples and wondering how he would win Lily over. His numerous efforts throughout the day thus far had been ridiculously unsuccessful. Lily didn't like him an iota more than she had when she'd bitten his hand last night. This was how a jilted lover felt, he supposed. This was what unrequited love must be.

It was no fun.

Then again, his motives weren't entirely pure, were they? He was trying to win Lily's trust by buying it, and whereas this trick seemed to work on some humans and even some vampires, Lily wasn't falling for it. Lily was street smart. No sugar lump would entice her to let down her guard, no juicy carrot would soften her resolve. The way to her heart was obviously not through her stomach.

At least she'd not bitten him again, thought sadly this wasn't due to lack of effort on her part. She had tried to bite and kick and stomp him numerous times. Kaname had used his vampire reflexes to dodge vicious bites and quick hooves. He could not, he would never use his vampire powers to hurt a horse, but there was no need to be a martyr and let her hurt him either.

'I pity the boy horse who ends up with you, Lily,' he thought distantly, smiling slightly. 'He will be trampled on merely for trying to neigh good morning to you. But love is an odd thing. Perhaps it would be worth it to him.'

He was distracted from his uncharacteristically lighthearted henpecked horse-husband thoughts by the familiar scent of another vampire approaching the stable area.

'**Him**?'

What was **he** doing here? There was no reason he could think of why Kiryuu Zero would visit the school stables. Kaname found himself slipping out of view behind the tree.

To Kaname knowledge wasn't only power, it was a way of life, and he did not want to confront the human-vampire without knowing his motives.

Perhaps Kiryuu merely came here to wind down. If you ignored the potently malicious aura of Lily the horse the stables were such a restful, lovely area of the school grounds. Kaname found himself feeling oddly relaxed here in spite of his thwarted quest of love.

This would be a place Kaname would choose to relax if he could afford to do so; perhaps Kiryuu escaped his daily woes here too... His motives could be as simple as that.

Alternatively he could be having a raunchy secret tryst with a stable girl, (Kaname smirked wryly at the thought) or perhaps he came here to illegally trade blood pills or sell vampire weapons to villainous characters. Who knew what Zero did in his spare time?

His curiosity was oddly piqued at this possible glimpse into the life of Zero, or at least into a part of his life that he had not thought of before. He had thought of Zero many times in the past year; as a rival, as a pawn, as a shield for Yuuki, often as a nuisance, and had considered every aspect of his usefulness to himself. Zero had been weighed and measured and considered in Kaname's mind. Kaname knew the exact extent of Zero's strength, could calculate the percentage of Zero's loyalty to Yuuki to the closest decimal; could predict his moves in a combat situation perfectly accurately; could gauge how large his scowl would be once he spotted him... but even though he technically knew Zero better than most people he'd never thought much of the boy's life outside of his uses or his token character traits.

Kiryuu came into view now, walking slowly, hands stuffed into the pockets of his pants, looking thoughtful. Kaname had thus far only seen Zero when the boy had known he was being watched, or a few times whilst in the throes of blood lust where he'd let down his guard at the cost of agonized desperation, but right now there was something peacefully unguarded about him. His posture was relaxed. His eyes seemed softer. It could have been a trick of the light, or simply the country fresh setting he was in, but he looked almost broodingly gentle. He still had a far way to go to be a picture of happiness, but at least he wasn't tense, scowling and glaring. He seemed entirely unaware that he was being watched, and Kaname felt like an intruder, watching someone display a face he only kept for himself, not for others.

Kiryuu walked right past the tree Kaname was hiding behind obliviously, and veered into the direction of the stables. He stopped at the open stable door, casually leaning his hand against the door frame.

What was he doing? He was a vampire, surely the horses didn't like him.

"Ohayo Lily," Kaname heard him murmur gently.

Instead of the snorts and spits and and indignant horse snickers that had preceded Kaname's sojourns into the stables he heard a welcoming, positively seductive, soft neigh.

Kaname would have sputtered if he had not been far too refined to resort to such uncouth behavior. That could not have been Lily. The neigh had been as gentle as the cooing of a turtle dove; that demonic horse couldn't be capable of such a sweet sound.

"I'll be back in a few minutes, I'm just going to get some fresh hay for you," Zero continued.

Hay? He doubted she'd eat hay. She had scorned far greater horse delicacies than mere hay in the past few hours. But in spite of himself Kaname watched as Zero slipped out of his uniform jacket, folding it over the stable door. He grabbed the large rake that leaned next to the door and then walked toward the enormous heap of hay a few meters to the left of the stables.

He looked on in some surprise as Kiryuu Zero then proceeded to rake hay into piles. He'd never pictured Zero doing something as simple as some manual labour, gathering feed for a horse. Zero's white shirt stretched stiffly against his back every time he leaned forward to spear some hay with the rake, accentuating broad shoulders and shoulder blades. He was quite a poignant figure; a lone silver haired man toiling in front of a haystack, the sun threatening to set in the distance. Some artist would have been gratified to paint the little scene, Kaname was sure.

He was taking longer than a few minutes, and raking far more hay than was necessary to feed one horse, or even a few horses. Perhaps he was immersed in his hay gathering. Kaname knew that stress could be eased by throwing yourself into work, and perhaps that was what Zero was doing. Oddly enough he suddenly had the urge to rake hay as well. It looked so simple and satisfying. So far removed from vampire politics and love triangles and darkness and blood.

The sun had almost disappeared behind the horizon by the time Kiryuu had finished. He swung the rake into the ground with a loud thunk, picked up a bale of hay and then turned back to the direction of the stables. His face was slightly flushed and he looked almost content.

There was a soft horsey snort of reproach when he entered the stables and disappeared from view.

"I'm sorry Lily, that took longer than I said it would," Kaname heard Zero murmur. "You must be hungry."

There was silence for a few minutes. Kaname itched to know what was happening. Had she mauled him to death? Was she accepting the food? Either way it was quiet.

Kaname was almost getting used to the silence when he heard Zero's low tenor voice again. "I can't stay today. I have some things to do for the chairman. My duties have doubled since Yuuki left the Day class and became a... Never mind. That's not your concern Lily. But I'll take you out for a walk tomorrow morning, you must be getting restless stuck in here."

A pause. And then a soft whinny.

A few moments later Kiryuu appeared at the stable door, pausing to gather his folded jacket and then walked away, looking deeply contemplative, his silver hair a beacon in the now twilight sky.

Kaname stayed where he was for a long time after that, ignoring the sudden chill of the night, wondering at the sudden fleeting stab of guilt that had assailed him.

'I use people because I must,' he reminded himself, looking into the direction of the warm looking stables. 'I use them for the greater good.'

* * *

By early morning Kaname was forcefully focusing on the other information he had gained the previous night.

Zero, it seemed, had somehow tamed Lily. Kaname wasn't sure whether the extent of Zero's friendship with the horse was merely talking to her from a distance, he hadn't been able to physically see their interaction, but even so, Kiriyu had managed to do so without her whinnying and snorting in resentment. Somehow Lily tolerated, or even possibly liked Zero. That meant that it was possible to tame Lily, and that was a positive thing. It meant Kaname could do the same thing.

He supposed he could have asked Zero for advice, and he normally would have. Kaname wasn't above asking other's opinions and getting help from others. He had his pride, but he knew full well that too much pride could lead to one's downfall. In fact he made a point of sometimes asking Ichijou or others for help, just to prove to himself that he had enough humility to trust others with important duties. But the thought of asking Zero for help in taming a horse left a bitter taste in his mouth.

Somehow he didn't have enough humility to do that. If Kiryuu could do it, he certainly could too.

He'd resolved, instead, to gather help from all sources except for Zero. He'd already dispatched Aido and Ichijou to the library to find books on horses; he'd sent Ruka to the staff quarters to speak to the head groom; and he had Kain searching for information on the best horse trainers. Kaname wasn't laying about idly either.

He had just returned from headmaster Cross and wheedled the stables' records out of him. He'd told the man that he was interested in procuring horse stock for breeding purposes on one of his family estates, and that he wanted to check a few details of the horses' at school's pedigree.

Thankfully Cross hadn't asked why a vampire would want to breed horses, and he'd amiably shuffled through the files in the cabinet of his office until he'd found a file containing the breeding certificates of the horses in the stables.

Kaname had been relieved that the certificates still existed. He knew vaguely that horsey people were often very proud of the lineage and pedigree of their horses, sometimes displaying them on their walls in ornate frames; but Cross didn't strike him as the sort of man who'd much care where a horse came from or what its blood relations were. The certificates were probably only still there because Cross had never bothered to sort out his filing cabinet.

Currently he was lounging on the elegant couch in his room, scanning Lily's certification papers. They were less telling or impressive than he'd thought they would be.

Some of the other horses in the stables seemed to have had far more famous breeders or sires, at least as far as Kaname could tell. Admittedly he didn't know the first thing about horse breeding certificates, but he had enough common sense to make conclusions from the differences in the certificates.

One of the horses, for example, had been sired by Malcolm XiVVV, Grand Champion of the Stallion Division, 1993, 1995, 1996. Double winner of the Grande July horse race, bred by multi-award winning Masashi farms. The mare was Divine Aquatic Wind, a double grand champion at some prestigious dressage show, bred by a count with an unpronounceable name.

Lily's certificate merely cited that she had been sired by 'Rose' and 'Thunder' from Yamato-smallholdings, and that she had been born four years ago.

That didn't sound nearly as impressive. In fact, the way these things read, it seemed as if Lily must have come from humble origins. Humble origins were not nearly as easy to research as prize winning horse ranches, but Kaname wouldn't let that deter him.

He'd already sent a message to one of his useful acquaintances in the nearby town with an order to find out more about Yamato-smallholdings, wherever it may be. This particular acquaintance dealt in shady business, and some of the things he did made Kaname's skin crawl, but he was good at finding things. And Kaname could overlook people (and vampires') nasty habits and shady business dealings if they had uses. Much as he hated it, he had to.

Either way he was sure he'd know everything he needed to by tomorrow.

He would find out everything he could about Lily - especially concerning her genealogy and her background. Knowing about genes and history was often useful in pinpointing and understanding people and vampires. He was sure the same applied to horses. Meanwhile his friends were finding out more about horses in general. He would be armed to the teeth with knowledge the next time he entered the stables.

Logically there was no way this could fail.

'Watch out Lily,' he thought.

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**Long A/N **- O-oh, this came out **completely** differently to what I had planned D: (Shouldn't write at 3am in the morning :3) It seems the fic will be longer than I anticipated...

I don't even know for a fact if horses have certificates of pedigree, though I'm pretty sure many of them do. Kaname strikes me as a particularly thorough vampire, I think it would be in character for him to check Lily's genealogy in this case. Thus the little excerpt on horse certificates. I suppose it wasn't strictly necessary but I wanted to lengthen the chapter, and have now embarked on a small newly discovered side plot :3 (I am sure people want to hit me and are yelling 'Just get to the yaoi, who cares about horse genealogy!' XD)

Also, I'm confused as to the spelling of Zero's surname. Some sources seem to say it's Kiryuu, others Kiriyu. Maybe it's something else entirely. Anybody know the correct spelling?

Thanks for the reviews. 3 Much appreciated.


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